My goodness, the last week was a whirlwind. I’m sitting along in my house now, well, alone with my cat, and it just seems so quiet.

This year Louie and I decided to celebrate Hanukkah as well-he has a tradition of celebrating Hanukkah as well alongside Christmas in his family background and I thought it would be nice to learn about it as well. We lit the candles nearly every night and it was very beautiful.

And then nearly my whole family came to stay for the week for Christmas. I think I decided on this back in August and I certainly spent enough time planning. I will say, my planning paid off, because we had tons of food and plenty of fun, though I probably made too much food.

(Athena and my mom singing the 12 days of Christmas)

Oh my gosh, we had a wonderful time all being together! My sister Leslie arrived first on the 23rd with her husband Peter and two kids, then my parents the next day. Christmas Eve we woke up early and started baking and cooking, and then I worked two church services, and we  had a lovely party in between services (shrimp, herring, potatoes with cheese, cheeseballs, cookies, and more) with Louie’s family as well.

(My sister Leslie put together a beautiful table spread)

I finally got home around 11:30 pm and was so glad to officially be on vacation!

Athena and Luca

(This was the day before Christmas—the stockings were hung on the chimney with care)

Christmas morning also started early, as my niece Athena is 5 and was very excited for her stocking and for everybody to get up (mostly the latter—she had already received a fair number of gifts and wasn’t as excited about them as we might have hoped, but she did her best to show gratitude and certainly was thrilled with her gift from Santa, a small stuffed flying pig).

We opened gifts and stockings for a bit, then had our family’s somewhat traditional Christmas brunch with cinnamon rolls, cheese grits and a breakfast casserole with eggs and sausage. After that it was more cooking because we were doing a sit down Christmas dinner for 12!

(This called for the selfie stick!) I had been running around like a madman to prepare this meal, and the two meals prior, and it paid off (mostly, as I did have a few “get out of the kitchen” or “I don’t want to have to tell you how to help, I just want you to help” breakdowns).

One of my favorite things we did this year was my grandmother’s date pudding recipe which I will blog about separately as you all need this recipe in your life. I may also mention some of the other recipes later as well, as mostly I loved everything we made and the majority of it was foods we had loved in our past. This was definitely a throwback Christmas time where we all tried to have our favorites.

My nephew Luca really loved my dad. We thought maybe he thought he was Santa

The next day was supposed to be nearly 70 degrees outside (thanks climate change) so we decided it was a good day for the zoo. It was also Louie’s last day with the family as he was flying out the next day to visit his dad’s side of the family, so Athena was eager to spend quality time with him. We hit the zoo early to beat the crowds and had a great time walking around seeing all the animals.

We are standing behind a sign about the Three Sisters.

The rest of the afternoon we just relaxed around the house, taking a walk up to the nearby playground (though I don’t have kids, it’s great to live in a neighborhood with a nearby playground), and ate leftovers. Then we headed over to Louie’s mom’s house for dinner, where she served a traditional Swedish feast of meatballs, potatoes, and Princess Cake.

Louie left early the next morning…well, he was supposed to. His flight was originally at 7 am but didn’t leave until 8:30 pm, but it just kept getting pushed back so he sadly spent the day at the airport, but he said he got some good work done. Some of the rest of us went to the City Museum, which I always say isn’t my favorite and is too loud, but I ended up having a great time.

We saw a hilarious one man circus act as well. We didn’t get home until after 2 pm and ate a lunch of leftovers again (we kept chipping away at the Christmas dinner dishes and desserts) before going to Grbic to celebrate my parents’ 51st wedding anniversary.

After those few busy days, the last full day we decided just to relax for real. We did hit up the playground, but mostly we all just played games and relaxed around the house. Athena learned to play Uno and some of us did some crafting as well.

Everybody left on the 29th—my parents and Leslie’s family after lunch, and my sister Carrie in the evening—we went to Target and watched some Netflix before she left…and now it’s just me!

I don’t have much going on this week so I plan to work out every day, do some practicing, put away the Christmas decorations, and finish up a few small cross-stitch projects. It’s going to be relaxing! I have a few things planned with friends as well, but it’s mostly just me and Muriel until Louie gets back.

How was your holiday celebration, if you had one? Are you doing anything for New Year’s Eve?